Okay, technically a double-post, but it doesn't matter considering I need to get in the habit of writing this and nobody is commenting any time soon. So here goes the expedition of Francisco Hernández de Córdoba. Granted, this won't be too dissimilar from OTL, but I can't find any reason to change the events of his voyage drastically at all, although I may tweak his motives for it.
The Spanish Discovery of El Gran Cairo
In the year 1517, 6 years after the disappearance of Diego de Nicuesa and his fleet, over a hundred more Spaniards were preparing for a new foray into the unexplored parts of the New World. Discontent with life in Tierra Firme [1], 110 people such as the illustrious Bernal Díaz del Castillo left Darien to Cuba, to petition Diego Velázquez for slaves to work in their mines. They paired up with the hidalgo Francisco Hernández de Córdoba, and with the permission of the governor they commissioned an expedition officially to go and explore new lands and gain glory. Although some doubt this "noble" calling was truth, there is some credence behind the idea given that as the pilot of the expedition they hired the famous Antón de Alaminos, an expert pilot and veteran of the voyages of Columbus. On 11.14.16.16.18, 5 Etz'nab 1 Zac (February 8th, 1517), Hernandez and over a hundred men left Havana in two warships and a brigantine.
Before they had left, Velázquez had requested them to go south, for there had been sightings of large canoes carrying dozens each, similar to what Columbus had seen 15 years prior. With this guideline, Hernandez had Alaminos turned the lead ship south west, straight for Yucatec shores. After passing Cuban shores and heading into the open ocean, the ships ran into rough seas and for weeks were lost at open seas. But before they lost hope they sighted land, and as they approached they saw the first sign of solidly built buildings and settlements. As any non-Christian civilization invoked Muslims to the Spanish, they called this place "El Gran Cairo" and referred to the tall temples as "mezquitas". In reality, the place they had found was but a simple town to the Maya, a town they called Ekab.
It was on 11.14.17.0.2, 3 Ik 5 Ceh (March 4th, 1517) that the batab of Ekab encountered the Spanish by a cape. To the three large vessels that bore strange wings, he sent ten canoes, that the Spanish called pirogues (and as Diaz noted, could carry up to 40 men). The sailors made signs of peace, and 30 Mayans including the batab himself boarded their flagship and looked around. The Spanish were impressed by their appearance, the Cubans were typically more or less naked whereas the Mayans covered up more and wore cotton shirts like jackets as well. When asked what this cape was, the Mayans replied "Cotoch", meaning "our houses, our homeland". From then on the cape was known as Cape Cotoche. [2] They left, saying the next morning they would come with more pirogues to bring the Spanish ashore.
The Mayans returned the next morning as promised, to transfer the Spanish to land. But they saw a large throng gathering on the shore and realized the landing might be dangerous. Nevertheless, they went on with it, and as a precaution brought fifteen crossbows and ten muskets. Their suspicions were true. The batab had prepared an ambush. They were assailed by spears and slings and arrows. The Spanish were frightened by the sudden attack by more numerous natives, but the power of their steel blades and the loud, fire-spitting guns that made a thunderclap as they rent flesh, scared off the attackers long enough for the Spanish to make their way back to the ships. During this fight, a priest had made his way to one of the stepped mezquitas and plundered some of its gold and jewels. But at the same time, two of the Spanish had died as well.
Most of the crew took it for granted that the natives would "be savage" and attack without warning, but some of the officers among them wondered by such a seemingly civilized people would attack without warning or reason. But what they did not know, what they could not know, was that after the shipwrecked crew of Captain Valdivia has made shore and been enslaved, some among them were carrying a disease that would change the face of a continent. It spread without warning among many of the towns and killed hundreds, and thousands. There were no signs at first, and then the victim would suffer horribly for a few days before succumbing to death. There was no cure, no remedy, no way to even comfort or numb the pain of the ailing. The Mayans called it mayacimil, the easy death. The Spanish called it smallpox.
When it first spread, Xamanzaná, the captor of the Spanish, had sent word to all the towns he could. Most responded by burning copal incense, and then started sacrificing birds, and jaguars, and even slaves. In Dzibanche, Holy Lord K'in H'alhul had his physicians and scientists keep track of the disease. They eventually came to the conclusion that it spread by contact. After deliberation, the Holy Lord of Dzibanche realized he had to make the hardest decision. He ordered that any villages showing signs of the mayacimil be quarantined, the road cut to show travelers that they proceed at their own peril. In Dzibanche, anyone that showed symptoms would be put to death, to ease their own suffering, and burned away from everyone else to ease the lives of all others. Stress was put on the order not to touch the infected. Despite all these advanced measures, it still spread virulently. H'alhul might have slowed it some, however, and although many considered him to be harsh, history vindicated him in the years to come.
Away from the Maya heartlands, to the north, Francisco Hernández de Córdoba continued his voyage, making a path westward along the coast, wary of any fights after the incident at Cape Cotoch. They passed a massive, bustling port town much larger by several degrees than Ekab, but went past it with the fear that a landing there would be much worse than at Cotoch. But their water supplies were dwindling, so they made shore by the village of Canpech [3]. As they got more water there, from the well-built wells the natives called chultunes, they heard the Indians repeat a word that sounded eerily familiar to them: "Castilian". The Spanish were greatly troubled by this, by how the natives could possibly know their word for people of the land from which most of them hailed. In truth, they were repeated what they'd heard from the castaways, who will be heard from later.
They left Canpech, and after a few days sailed into a violent storm that sent them south, near Chakanputun, or Champoton as the Spanish called it. They stopped to gather water there, for they were near empty again, but made a great mistake in doing so. The lord there was a fearsome man named Mocħ Couoh. He gathered his captains, and his holcanes, and summoned his militias who armed themselves from the town armories, painted red and black symbols on themselves, and carrying the bright, colorful banners of war they silently made their way to the Spanish. They were spotted around nightfall, as they made no pretense at stealth, and confused the Spanish as to their intentions. The Spanish became fearful, and argued. Some wanted to leave immediately, but others argued that doing so would get them attacked immediately. Others opted for attacking at night, but as they argued dawn broke and the hopelessness of the Spaniards' situation dawned upon them as well. They numbered a little over a hundred. The host of the province of Chakanputun numbered into the thousands.
The Mayan host, plumed and feathered banners fluttering in the wind, made great noise with deep drums and whistles and shouts, and more from the villages joined the army as they organized themselves into squadrons and surrounded the Spanish. When they attacked, it was with a shower of arrows and rocks from slings. And worst of all were the darts from the spearthrower, or the Jatz'om "white heat" as the Maya called it. Even steel armor was penetrated by those, and the slings could stun a helmeted man if hit on the head. After the first great hail that laid low many of the Spanish force, they closed in with spears, knives, clubs, axes, and most dangerously of all, the obsidian swords that cleaved flesh like butter. The superior steel of the Spanish only succeeded in pushing them back so they maintained their distance, and they simply went back to hailing them with projectiles of every kind. Soon a shout rose among the Mayans, "Halach Uinic, halach uinic!" as they pointed as Captain Francisco Hernández. Hernández was hit by ten arrows, and Bernal Díaz by three. The Spanish formed a phalanx and made a desperate fallback to the ships, leaving behind the precious water and two men who were taken prisoner.
Even as they fell back to the boats Mocħ Couoh did not try to spare any. His men did their best to capsize the boats as they retreated to the ships, and many Spanish men fell into the water. Half were hanging on desperately to the boats, but in the end the ship with the shallowest draft rescued them. But it was at great cost. Not only was the precious water lost, so were fifty men killed on the beaches of Champotón. Two had been taken prisoner and killed shortly after. And all the rest save one were wounded or injured in some way. Five more would die of their injuries. The extreme thirst that had gripped the men thereafter made them suffer even moreso. They named the place they retreated from La Costa de Mala Pelea, The Coast of the Bad Fight. After a tortuous journey home, they made it back to Havana with only two boats, which had deteriorated and were taking on water. Four more had died by then. And shortly after Captain Francisco Hernández de Córdoba made it back to Cuba, he died as well, but not before he passed on the gold the priest had recovered from Ekab, and told the people of a land filled with riches.
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[1] Tierra Firme is what the Spanish called Panama. I like the name, not sure if it'll stick, though.
[2] They also asked the name of the whole land. The answer is heavily disputed. In the OP I went with the "Ci-u-than" "I don't understand you" idea because it was more interesting and felt better in the narrative, but there is much doubt on that to say the least. Partially because it was likely that was a propaganda slight against someone who supposedly misinterpreted that, and possibly because there is no clear cognate that matches that. One theory is that they said the Chontal Mayan word "Yokatan", meaning language or where the language is spoken.
[3] Canpech is OTL Campeche, a very important place. They bustling port town they passed was Chunchucmil, which was long abandoned by this time OTL, yet due to the no-Collapse deal here still exists as a port for the large and important city of Uxmal, much as Chetumal does for Dzibanche, yet Chunchucmil is much larger than Chetumal.
Whew, that was much longer than expected. And it didn't diverge much from OTL either. Huh. In any case, I laughed at myself when I almost made the mistake of typing Mocħ Couoh's name as Moch Covoh, which is how Diego del Landa tells it. Good thing I found a FAMSI dictionary that corrected me. If you want anything on Mayans, FAMSI is the most official place I'd say. If you are interested, Mocħ Couoh translates as Tarantula Fingers. Appropriate name, I'm sure he was quite the pleasant person... If you are interested in other names, FAMSI gives Hunac Ceel as meaning Infinitely Cold, which I didn't know before and also seems rather appropriate given his infamous reputation for deviousness.
So, there are two chapters now done of a little of introducing the Spaniards and largely following OTL. Next update I hope will be much more interesting. For those not well-versed in Mesoamerican history, it will contain the exploits of a certain personage known by most people today as Cortez.
